Aaron Gleeman

There are a lot of crazy stats within Fernando Rodney‘s amazing comeback season for the Rays, including the fact that he converted his 46th save in 48 chances last night and now has a 72/16 K/BB ratio in 72.1 innings at age 35 after walking more batters than he struck out for the Angels last…

Tsuyoshi Nishioka will go down as one of the worst acquisitions in Twins history, but at least the final bill will be a little cheaper than expected. Nishioka asked the Twins to release him and offered to give back his 2013 salary, so naturally they obliged today and he’s officially a free agent. He was…

Milwaukee’s season more or less came to an end last night thanks to John Axford blowing a save against the Reds, dropping the Brewers to four games out of the second Wild Card spot. That might make it tough for fans to appreciate a nice gesture from Axford at this point–or at any point this…

Last month Indians general manager Chris Antonetti told reporters that Manny Acta would be back as manager next season. And then yesterday Antonetti fired Acta. That alone makes it pretty tough to place much weight in anything the Indians say about hiring and firing at this point, but yesterday Antonetti got a vote of confidence…

Chad Billingsley was ruled out for the season a while ago, but the Dodgers right-hander is trying to determine if he’ll need Tommy John elbow surgery and the 12-18 month recovery timetable that comes with it. Billingsley has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament, but was able to play catch regularly for the past week…

As soon as the Indians announced this afternoon that Manny Acta was out as manager there was speculation that Terry Francona could emerge as a potential candidate in Cleveland. And according to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com the wheels may already be in motion. Rosenthal reports that Francona “already has had preliminary contact with the Indians”…

R.A. Dickey notched his 20th win of the season this afternoon, but in allowing three runs in 7.2 innings he fell from first to second among NL ERA leaders. Clayton Kershaw now leads Dickey by the slimmest of margins, 2.68 to 2.69, which got me wondering if a reigning Cy Young winner had ever led…

I’m definitely one of those “wins aren’t a good way to evaluate pitchers” guys, but, you know, whatever. R.A. Dickey just picked up his 20th win of the season by striking out 13 batters over 7.2 innings of three-run ball against the Pirates, as the Mets hung on for a 6-5 victory. Dickey is now…

Dexter Fowler has been out of the Rockies’ lineup since September 22 with a sprained left wrist and the center fielder told Troy Renck of the Denver Post that he’s unlikely to play again this season. Fowler is discouraged by the lack of improvement his wrist has made during the past few days and is…

Any Astros fans wondering what to think of the team hiring Nationals third base coach Bo Porter as the new manager should read this interview Porter did back in July with David Laurila of Fan Graphs. He gave a ton of very detailed, interesting responses, most of which showed Porter to have a really good…

Sometimes when an outfielder makes a great catch that’s described as “robbing a homer” it’s really more like robbing a double off the top of the wall. This is not one of those times, as Pirates right fielder Travis Snider reached a good three feet beyond the outfield wall to take a sure homer away…

Not that there was much doubt considering he’s under contract for $5 million, but Todd Helton confirmed that he’s planning to come back from hip surgery to play in 2013. “I think, physically, I will be able to come back,” Helton said, via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. “So I plan on coming back,…

Glen Perkins was already a HardballTalk favorite because he’s a really good pitcher who’s also sabermetrically inclined, funny on Twitter, and the closer for my beloved Twins. And now there’s another reason to root for him, as Perkins shared some really interesting thoughts with Joe Posnanski while breaking down his recent save against the Yankees…

When Jered Weaver signed a five-year, $85 million extension with the Angels last year most analysis of the deal pegged it as extremely team-friendly and well below market value for an elite No. 1 starter. Weaver repeatedly said at the time that he didn’t really care because $85 million is a ton of money and…

As promised, Keith Hernandez shaved off his mustache for charity today. Or more accurately, had his mustache shaved off in a big ceremony outside Citi Field in front of fans and media members. Our buddy Ted Berg of SNY.tv snapped that photo of the shave in the progress and then Matthew Cerrone of MetsBlog.com has…

Jason Isringhausen has barely pitched for the Angels down the stretch and the 40-year-old reliever is leaning toward retirement, telling Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com that he’s currently 70 percent likely to call it a career after 16 seasons. Isringhausen cited the desire to spend more time with his two young daughters, saying: I like to…

So much for Max Scherzer being past his shoulder fatigue. After skipping a start last week he rejoined the Tigers’ rotation Sunday with a decent five-inning outing against the Twins, but now Scherzer has been scratched from tomorrow’s scheduled start. Scherzer’s fastball velocity was down versus Minnesota and the right-hander told Jason Beck of MLB.com…

Bud Norris has been so good against the Cardinals over the years–and so mediocre against just about everyone else–that St. Louis scribes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and Matthew Leach of MLB.com have a running joke with fans on Twitter about his dominance using the hashtag #BudChuck. Norris did it again last…

Jeff Kent was featured prominently in the season premiere of “Survivor” last week, but he was mostly an afterthought in the second episode last night. And yet because I wasted an hour of my life watching the show I’m going to do a Kent-centric recap now: • The producers are clearly trying to make him…

Shutting down Roy Halladay because of his shoulder problems remains a possibility for the Phillies, but for now at least he’s scheduled to start Saturday against the Marlins. Halladay failed to make it out of the second inning Saturday versus the Braves, allowing seven runs and struggling with shoulder muscle spasms, but Todd Zolecki of…

Baseball injuries seem to come in bunches and the latest “trend” has shifted from oblique strains to irritated eyes. Coco Crisp has missed most of the past two weeks with pink eye. Josh Hamilton missed a week with dried out corneas from too much caffeine. And now Twins starter Samuel Deduno left this afternoon’s game…

Coco Crisp appeared in last night’s game off the bench as a pinch-runner, but he’s still unable to hit or play defense because of a nasty case of pink eye that he’s had for going on two weeks. Today he gave an update via Twitter: Its so frustrating have this pink I crap! My vision…

Cincinnati skipped Mike Leake‘s turn in the rotation yesterday in order to keep Johnny Cueto on regular rest and Mark Sheldon of MLB.com writes that Leake “realizes he is on the bubble” for the postseason roster. Cueto, Mat Latos, Bronson Arroyo, and Homer Bailey are all ahead of him on the rotation depth chart and…

Clayton Kershaw came out of Sunday night’s start without making his bum hip any worse, so the reigning Cy Young winner is scheduled to take his next turn in the rotation Friday versus the Rockies. Kershaw prepared for the outing by throwing a bullpen session Tuesday, reporting no problems two days after tossing five innings…

For the past two weeks the Astros have been busy interviewing manager candidates and owner Jim Crane told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com that the team hopes to make a decision late this week or early next week. “It will really depend on the selection we make, how quickly we announce that based upon where the…